User login

You are hereBlogs / farjana's blog / VOICE Published a New Report onTransparency And Accountability In Water Supply & Management

VOICE Published a New Report onTransparency And Accountability In Water Supply & Management

By farjana - Posted on 08 August 2009

Despite significant development in Bangladesh's water sector during last decade it has not been possible to achieve universal access to safe water. Water supply services in many of the cities, towns and smaller municipalities in Bangladesh tend to be detrimentally effected by dysfunctional utility and water departments. Inadequate tariff structures, corruption, poor cost recovery, unaccountability, intermittent services, and deteriorating water quality all represent major barriers to providing citizens with clean drinking water. This evidence suggests that this resource crisis is not simply based in water scarcity, but rather in a lack of good governance. That is to say that today millions suffer for lack of leadership and transparency, not for lack of water resources.

VOICE conducted a research titled ''Transparency and Accountability in Water Supply & Management: A case of Mymensingh Municipality' with the aim of shedding light onto the issues effecting water supply. This research revealed significant shortcomings in the structure of supply management systems. Citizens of Mymensignh complained of feeling dis-empowered to improve the water situation because of corruption and indifference to their problems. Moving forward it is vital that the municipality provides the tools which allow its citizens to take an active role in shaping the future of water management and that they are empowered to hold public officials to account. Ultimately, infrastructure development will not remedy the current state of water management, unless it is coupled with the development of public transparency and accountability.